James May's Big Ideas

[budgieishere]

Watched the second episode on the train home, and I was so engrossed I nearly missed my stop. I was amazed with ASIMO, especially the sight recognition. I've love to learn more about how they do that. The lifelike face robot was a real nice way of looking at human social behaviour in a different light. It got me thinking about all these conceptions that we place on objects simply to understand them better - like anthropomorphising the way animals behave and so forth.

I loved it. I also noticed some interesting editing techniques. In some way quite similar to how some TG eps are filmed. Inspiration perhaps?

[Nikodemus]

Oh I like this show! Thank you for sharing it.
May is a perfect presenter for this kind of documentaries. Style is a bit same as in some slightly older TG James May films.

[RWinslow]

Really enjoyed the episode. Nothing new, but it's nice to know that things like this are being produced for the mainstream.

I'm also curious about some music. Does anyone know what music was playing during the ASIMO portion when James was teaching him "Grandpa" and the "Mini Cooper?" ~39:00 to 40:39

Sounds a bit like the Album Leaf.

[ravana]

I've thoroughly enjoyed this series by James as well & look forward to his adventures with "TV's Oz Clark" once again

[WillDAQ]

Originally Posted by budgieishere

I've love to learn more about how they do that.

There are a whole host of different ways of image processing ranging from techniques based on Fourier space to pixel wise matrix operations.

Thanks to a lot of processing power most of these techniques will be implemented. They're really looking to find

- Colours - which colours, how much of each and how are they positioned relative to each other

- Shape - both "sqareness" and if possible similarity to a basic geometric shape

- Size & Relative Position

On the last front this is where Asimo can cheat, in a normal image processing job you have no way of knowing how far away the object is. By putting up a hand as if to grasp the object the person holding it kindly obliges and holds it approximately one arm length away, hence you know the distance, hence you know the size.

Thinking about the objects James used, colour would be the most helpful, then size and position, then shape.

[Hidden_Hunter]

I've seen Asimo a couple of times and yes he really is awesome. They had him on tour here last November or so and I saw him at Disneyland again There does appear to be several different versions of him though, or they just showed more stuff here in AU.

You need to watch Asimo running the slalom, it's pretty hilarious.

[Shawn]

It's funny that Asimo can walk better than human South Park characters, but I kept thinking of this when I was watching ep 2.

[Mercedes5CLR]

Thanks for posting the Second episode. I can't wait for the next!!!

[Dsemaj]

Second episode was awesome.

What was the Beethoven song that James was talking about that he wrote about the woman he loved, but she didn't love him back? I've heard it before.. want to get it..

[Viper007Bond]

I totally forgot about that South Park episode.

[logifuse]

Originally Posted by Dsemaj

What was the Beethoven song that James was talking about that he wrote about the woman he loved, but she didn't love him back? I've heard it before.. want to get it..

It's Moonlight Sonata 1st Movement I think. Edit: yeah, that's what it was - gets a mention on the previous page of the thread.

[KaJuN]

I just watched it and it was very entertaining even though I know just about nothing about robotics. I kept waiting for James to say ASIMO looked like the Stig's robotic cousin. And it was really interesting seeing a weekend in the life of James May during the life logging segment. His Porsche looks fantastic!

[lueyyou]

Another really great and educational video, I really enjoy how James explains things so well and so clearly without being overly boring. And there was quite a bit of content in that episode too a real broad view of robotics in general. Hope he does more series like this in the future.

[grievousjali]

Originally Posted by budgieishere

The lifelike face robot was a real nice way of looking at human social behaviour in a different light. It got me thinking about all these conceptions that we place on objects simply to understand them better - like anthropomorphising the way animals behave and so forth.

I loved this part too, and for that same reason. It also gets you thinking about how you 'treat' the objects around your house, i.e, "My computer hates me and loves my brother", that sort of thing. Though I must say that the interesting philosophical connotations were nearly missed the first time I saw it, because I had a roomful of people crying with laughter at poor James nearly jumping out of his skin when he went to touch the robot's glasses and it moved.

My favorite thing overall about this episode was that it got me thinking about how we learn and think- Asimo was programmed to learn things the same way babies learn, James had to think "left" and "right" thoughts to control the MERC, at the end he talked about virtual reality vs. real reality, etc.

Lots of funny bits too: "It's barely indistinguishable from a modern day Alabaman!"

And, pardon my being a Californian and thus completely out of the loop, but is "the annoying bloke from the building society advert"
this annoying bloke?

Lastly, + piano =

[Richmondgal]

Loved this episode more than the last one. Very interesting and it's quite relevant to today's society as to what we might have in the not too distant future. I would love Asimo in my house, but not the gemanoid or the robot that couldn't hit the ball and the super strength exo-skeleton which reminded me of something from Alien or Alien 2.

Can't wait for next week's show.

[ampppe]

The "bionic eye" was quite interesting. Last I had heard about it they were still quite pixelated and black and white (though that was a long time ago). The surgery part was awesome to watch. Less blood than most surgeries but I can see why some people don't like watching it (the eyelid retractor looks horribly uncomfortable).

[Momo63]

Originally Posted by grievousjali

And, pardon my being a Californian and thus completely out of the loop, but is "the annoying bloke from the building society advert"
this annoying bloke?

Could be, but I took it to be this one. This is Howard - they made lots of adverts on these lines which quickly became tooth-grindingly annoying.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEVjbosMqFM

[budgieishere]

Originally Posted by WillDAQ

There are a whole host of different ways of image processing ranging from techniques based on Fourier space to pixel wise matrix operations.

Thanks to a lot of processing power most of these techniques will be implemented. They're really looking to find

- Colours - which colours, how much of each and how are they positioned relative to each other

- Shape - both "sqareness" and if possible similarity to a basic geometric shape

- Size & Relative Position

On the last front this is where Asimo can cheat, in a normal image processing job you have no way of knowing how far away the object is. By putting up a hand as if to grasp the object the person holding it kindly obliges and holds it approximately one arm length away, hence you know the distance, hence you know the size.

Thinking about the objects James used, colour would be the most helpful, then size and position, then shape.

The colour one was the first thing that sprang to mind when I was thinking about it. That can be done with algorithms to compare pixels to surrounding pixels and find rough edges of objects. I vaguely remember something about that in one of the subjects I did last semester.

The distance thing is an ingenious way to get around the size issue. It hones again into the basic human instinct to push things closer when we're trying to teach someone about it. It seems like a natural action. Brilliant!

Originally Posted by grievousjali

My favorite thing overall about this episode was that it got me thinking about how we learn and think- Asimo was programmed to learn things the same way babies learn, James had to think "left" and "right" thoughts to control the MERC, at the end he talked about virtual reality vs. real reality, etc.

That's one of the most surprising things about the show so far. It's just making me think about things for hours after the ep is done. Maybe I don't watch enough informative shows, but that hasn't happened to me in a while. Haha.

[chitownjeff]

I can't believe this - James came to Chicago last winter and I didn't know! I wonder if there's a blog somehwere where that was posted.

In the Chicago section he drives by 7 dwarfs restaurant - that is about 5 minutes from my house!!! How cool!

[Shawn]

You guys getting all bent out of shape that James visited your town and you didn't know - what exactly would you do if you had known? Stalk him?

It's not like they film shows like this with an audience you could get tickets for.